Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā 1.5

Nitāi: Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. [Prabhupāda and devotees repeat] [leads chanting of verse, etc.]

rādhā-kṛṣṅa-praṅaya-vikṛtir hlādinī śaktir asmād ekātmānāv api bhuvi purā deha-bhedaṁ gatau tau caitanyākhyaṁ prakaṭam adhunā tad-dvayaṁ caikyam āptaṁ rādhā-bhāva-dyuti-suvalitaṁ naumi kṛṣṅa-svarūpam [Cc Ādi 1.5]

[break] [01:02]

"The loving affairs of Śrī Rādhā and Kṛṣṅa are transcendental manifestations of the Lord's internal pleasure-giving potency. Although Rādhā and Kṛṣṅa are one in Their identity, They separated Themselves eternally. Now these two transcendental identities have again united in the form of Śrī Kṛṣṅa Caitanya. I bow down to Him, who has manifested Himself with the sentiment and complexion of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṅī although He is Kṛṣṅa Himself."

Prabhupāda:

So another feature of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is described here by the author, Kavirāja Gosvāmī. In the beginning He has been described as the ultimate Absolute Truth, ṣaḍ-aiśvarya-pūrṅaḥ ya bhagavān. The Absolute Truth realized in three phases. The ultimate phase is Bhagavān. Ṣaḍ-aiśvarya-pūrṅaḥ. Bhagavān means full of six opulences. Not as nowadays there are so many Bhagavāns, they have no aiśvarya, but Bhagavān means ṣaḍ-aiśvarya-pūrṅaḥ, full opulences, six kinds of opulence. Then that Bhagavān, Supreme Personality of Godhead, has descended as incarnation, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, just to bestow the topmost understanding of loving affairs with Kṛṣṅa. Samarpayitum unnata ujjvala-rasāṁ sva-bhakti-śriyam.

In the bhakti platform there are different stages. Spiritually, there is no difference. One in dāsya-rasa and one in mādhurya-rasa, there is no difference. But a devotee likes to serve the Supreme Lord according to his inclination. Some wants to love Him in śānta-rasa, some wants to love Him in dāsya-rasa, someone in friendly, then paternal love, then conjugal love. So there is no difference between these different phases of loving affair, but great devotees and learned scholars, they have given their decision that the loving affairs of Kṛṣṅa in the conjugal platform between husband and wife, or above that, between lover and beloved... That is very much prominent in the Western countries, friend—boyfriend, girlfriend. In the spiritual world that platform of remaining as friend without marriage, that is considered as the highest. And whatever we see here: a perverted reflection of that loving affairs. Just like perverted reflection...

It is described in the Bhagavad-gītā, ūrdhva-mūlam adho-śākha aśvatthaṁ prāhur avyayam. This material world has been described as having its root up, ūrdhva-mūlam adho-śākha, and the branches down. We have several times explained this ūrdhva-mūlam adho-śākha. In the material world this is a shadow. Unless it is shadow, how the mūlam, or the root, can be upwards? We have got experience: a tree on the bank of a river. The tree is reflected adho-śākha, on the root upwards, shadow. So this is shadow. Real thing is in the spiritual world. Therefore it is called adho-śākha. Śākha. In the spiritual world the topmost part is this conjugal love, and here, the same thing, when pervertedly reflected, it is the lowest abominable. We should know this, that in the spiritual world, to remain as girlfriend and boyfriend, that is the topmost pleasure, and in the material world, the same thing is the most abominable thing. Therefore it is adho-śākha.

We cannot imitate the loving affairs of Kṛṣṅa and Rādhārāṅī unless we understand the real fact. The real fact is described here, that rādhā-kṛṣṅa-praṅaya-vikṛtir hlādinī śaktiḥ. Śaktiḥ means potency. So from Vedas we understand that the Lord, the Supreme Person, has got multi-energies.

parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca na tasya kāryaṁ karaṅaṁ ca vidyate na tat-samas abhyadhikaś ca dṛśyate [Cc Madhya 13.65, purport]

So these energies... Kṛṣṅa, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead, has got multi-energies. When Arjuna requested Kṛṣṅa, "Will You kindly explain some of the energies as You display?" so in the Bhagavad-gītā there is a list of His different energies. And at last, it is concluded,

atha vā bahunaitena kiṁ jñātena tavārjuna viṣṭabhya aham idaṁ kṛtsnam ekāṁśena sthito jagat [Bg 10.42]

[But what need is there, Arjuna, for all this detailed knowledge? With a single fragment of Myself I pervade and support this entire universe.]

Idaṁ kṛtsnaṁ jagat: "All the material manifestation." Material manifestation means these material universes. They are many. This universe, what we see, one only, the sky, the covering, but there are many millions of universes. Yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṅḍa-koṭi [Bs 5.40].

[I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, whose effulgence is the source of the nondifferentiated Brahman mentioned in the Upaniṣads, being differentiated from the infinity of glories of the mundane universe appears as the indivisible, infinite, limitless, truth.]

Koṭi means millions. Jagad-aṅḍa. Jagad-aṅḍa means universes. So Kṛṣṅa says that "All these universes in the material world is display of My one-fourth energy." Just imagine what is Kṛṣṅa's energy. Ekāṁśena sthito jagat. And we are trying to imitate Kṛṣṅa. So many rascals, they declare they are Bhagavān. They do not know what is Bhagavān. Bhagavān... These universes are coming, innumerable universes are coming, from the breathing of Mahā-Viṣṅu.

yasyaika-niśvasita-kālam athāvalambya jīvanti loma-vilajā jagad-aṅḍa-nāthāḥ viṣṅur mahān sa iha yasya kalā-viśeṣo govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi [Bs 5.48]

[Brahmā and other lords of the mundane worlds, appearing from the pores of hair of Mahā-Viṣṅu, remain alive as long as the duration of one exhalation of the latter [Mahā-Viṣṅu]. I adore the primeval Lord Govinda of whose subjective personality Mahā-Viṣṅu is the portion of portion.]

They have no idea what is Bhagavān. This is one of the description of Mahā-Viṣṅu, that from His breathing, innumerable universes are coming out. When He is exhaling, the universes are coming out, and when He is inhaling, all, everything, is going within Him. This is Bhagavān. So anyway, this is partial exhibition of the energy of the Lord. And this is one-fourth energy. This material world is manifestation of His one-fourth energy. The three-fourth energies are in the spiritual world. So in that spiritual world Kṛṣṅa exhibits His spiritual energy. That is only spiritual energy. This material world is made of material energy, and we are marginal energy.

So when Kṛṣṅa wants to enjoy... The enjoy means these loving affairs between man and woman. That is a fact. That is not an artificial thing. Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura has explained Vedānta-sūtra, janmādy asya yataḥ [SB 1.1.1]. He has said, ādi rasasya janma yatra. Ādi-rasa. There are twelve kinds of rasas, mellow. Of all of them, the ādi-rasa... Ādi-rasa means the loving affair between man and woman. This is called ādi-rasa. So Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura explains, janmādy asya means the ādi-rasa, loving affairs between man and woman, that is from the Supreme Person. That's a fact. Unless the loving propensity is there in the Supreme, how it can be reflected? Because this is perverted reflection only, so there must be the origin.

So the Māyāvādī philosophers, they cannot understand this. Because they have got bitter experience of this material world, they try to make zero or without any varieties the ultimate goal. Śūnyavādi. Nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi. The nirviśeṣavāda, with impersonalism and voidism, they are of the same nature. The Buddhist philosopher, they say, "Ultimately, everything is zero." And the Māyāvādī philosopher says, "Not zero, but imperson." But actually that is not fact. There is everything variety and personal. But because the philosophers with poor fund of knowledge, they cannot understand, they make it zero or variety-less, nirviśeṣavāda. That, to clean, that to clear the idea, our Kavirāja Gosvāmī says that this Rādhā-Kṛṣṅa prema, loving affairs between Rādhā-Kṛṣṅa, it is a fact. It is not imagination; it is a fact. But this fact is different from the fact we have got experience in this world. That is to be understood.

Don't take... Just like sahajiyās. They take the Rādhā-Kṛṣṅa prema just like ordinary lusty affairs in this material world. But that is not the fact. In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam there is a verse that the loving affairs of gopīs and Kṛṣṅa, Viṣṅu, it is not ordinary thing. If one can hear from the proper source, and if he understands the real fact of rasa-līlā, then the result will be that his heart, which is full with lusty desire, that will vanish. There will be no more lusty desires. Praṅaya-vikṛtiḥ, this praṅaya-vikṛtiḥ hlādinī. So if anyone understands this praṅaya-vikṛtiḥ, the loving affairs, transformation of different feelings, if one can understand, then his material lusty desires will vanish. This is the result. Hṛd-roga-kāmān apasya apahinoti dhīraḥ. He becomes dhīra.

Here in this material world everyone is adhīra, agitated, agitated by lusty desires. But in the spiritual world they are dhīra. They are not agitated by lusty desires. This is spiritual world. So long we are agitated by the lusty desires, we must know that we are in the material world. That is the test. Just like Yamunācārya says,

yad-avadhi mama cetaḥ kṛṣṅa-padāravindayor nava-nava-[rasa]-dhāmany [udyataṁ] rantum āsīt tad-avadhi bata nārī-saṅgame smaryamāne bhavati mukha-vikāraḥ suṣṭhu niṣṭhīvanaṁ ca

"So long I have been engaged in the service of Kṛṣṅa and I am rendering more and more service and getting spiritual pleasure, since then, as soon as I think of sex life, I immediately spit upon it and I hate to think of it." This is the result. So people should know what is Rādhā-Kṛṣṅa pra... If one becomes attached to rādhā-kṛṣṅa-praṅaya-vikṛtiḥ, then the test is that his lusty desires will vanish. This is the test.

Therefore Kavirāja Gosvāmī explains that "This is not ordinary thing. This is the transformation of the ahlādinī śakti." Samvit, sandhinī, ahlādinī. The Supreme Lord has got three potencies, or energies, primarily. So this rādhā-kṛṣṅa-praṅaya-vikṛtiḥ is transformation of the pleasure potency. Kṛṣṅa is described in the Bhagavad-gītā, paraṁ brahma. Paraṁ brahma. Paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma pavitraṁ paramaṁ bhavān [Bg 10.12].

[Arjuna said: You are the Supreme Brahman, the ultimate, the supreme abode and purifier, the Absolute Truth and the eternal divine person. You are the primal God, transcendental and original, and You are the unborn and all-pervading beauty. All the great sages such as Nārada, Asita, Devala, and Vyāsa proclaim this of You, and now You Yourself are declaring it to me.]

That is the explanation given by Arjuna. This is called paramparā system. If we follow Arjuna, Arjuna's decision should be taken. Arjuna decision is: "Kṛṣṅa is paraṁ brahma."

So the Māyāvādī philosophers, they are after brahma-sukha. Brahma-sukhānubhūtyā. Brahma-sukhānubhūtyā. The source of brahma-sukha is Kṛṣṅa, but they cannot reach up to that point.

itthaṁ brahma-sukhānubhūtyā dāsyaṁ gatānāṁ para-daivatena māyāśritānāṁ nara-dārakeṅa sākaṁ vijahruḥ kṛta-puṅya-puñjāḥ [SB 10.12.11]

[All the boys would be differently engaged. Some boys blew their flutes, and others blew bugles made of horn. Some imitated the buzzing of the bumblebees, and others imitated the voice of the cuckoo. Some boys imitated flying birds by running after the birds' shadows on the ground, some imitated the beautiful movements and attractive postures of the swans, some sat down with the ducks, sitting silently, and others imitated the dancing of the peacocks.

Some boys attracted young monkeys in the trees, some jumped into the trees, imitating the monkeys, some made faces as the monkeys were accustomed to do, and others jumped from one branch to another. Some boys went to the waterfalls and crossed over the river, jumping with the frogs, and when they saw their own reflections on the water they would laugh. They would also condemn the sounds of their own echoes.

In this way, all the cowherd boys used to play with Kṛṣṅa, who is the source of the Brahman effulgence for jñānīs desiring to merge into that effulgence, who is the Supreme Personality of Godhead for devotees who have accepted eternal servitorship, and who for ordinary persons is but another ordinary child. The cowherd boys, having accumulated the results of pious activities for many lives, were able to associate in this way with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. How can one explain their great fortune?]

Here Śukadeva Gosvāmī says, "Here is the Para-brahman." When he is describing Kṛṣṅa's pastimes with the cowherd boys, so Śukadeva Gosvāmī says, "These cowherd boys are playing with the Supreme Person who is the source of brahma-sukha." Itthaṁ brahma-sukhānubhūtyā. And for the devotees... There are two kinds of transcendentalist: one Brahmavādi, and other, Vaiṣṅava. A Vaiṣṅava takes this philosophy that we are servant. Jīvera svarūpa haya nitya kṛṣṅa dāsa [Cc Madhya 20.108-109]. And the Māyāvādī philosophers, they imperfectly think that they have become one with the Supreme; they have become Nārāyaṅa. That is a misleading philosophy. We should not accept that.

So this Kṛṣṅa, being Para-brahman, so what will be the platform of His loving affairs? This is to be considered. For brahma-sukha, we are... In this material world we see many saintly persons, they give up everything: sannyāsa. Sannyāsa means giving up everything for the Supreme. So for simply to relish a little bit of brahma-sukha, these saintly persons, great, great saintly persons, they are giving up everything. Tyaktvā sva-dharmam. Sva-dharma means the regulated division of the society: brāhmaṅa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra. So they give up everything, brahma-sukhānubhūtyā, to understand..., tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyed sattva [SB 5.5.1],

[Lord Ṛṣabhadeva told His sons: My dear boys, of all the living entities who have accepted material bodies in this world, one who has been awarded this human form should not work hard day and night simply for sense gratification, which is available even for dogs and hogs that eat stool. One should engage in penance and austerity to attain the divine position of devotional service. By such activity, one's heart is purified, and when one attains this position, he attains eternal, blissful life, which is transcendental to material happiness and which continues forever.]

for purifying the existence. Because we are after happiness, every one of us. But we are seeking happiness in the perverted reflection. That is not possible. Therefore one has to give up this perverted happiness and come to the real fact. So our point is that "Because Kṛṣṅa is Para-brahman, so how He can take pleasure in this material world?" This is the argument. So those who are wrongly thinking, foolishly thinking, that "Kṛṣṅa enjoyed with the gopīs like we enjoy in the company of many girls," they are great fools. They have no knowledge. They are misled, because it appears, perverted reflection, it appears like that. But the reflection is different from the reality.

So we should not take in that way. We should follow the footsteps of Caitanya-caritāmṛta-kar, that we should understand that this praṅaya-vikṛtiḥ, this transformation of loving affairs between Rādhā and Kṛṣṅa, this is not like this, the ordinary boy and girl. It is ahlādinī śakti. If we take that, then we are misled. How He can take? Because for understanding brahma-sukha we are giving up everything—I mean from the Māyāvādī point of view—and again, Kṛṣṅa being Para-brahman, how He can indulge in material happiness? This is the argument. Brahma-sukha, to understand brahma-sukha, to relish brahma-sukha, if one is giving up everything material... There are three kinds of sukha: material sukha, brahma-sukha and spiritual sukha. Brahma-sukha is on the margin. Sukha means happiness. Therefore, from logical point of view, we should conclude it that "Kṛṣṅa, being Para-brahman, how He can indulge in material happiness?" This is very important point. If for understanding little bit of brahma-sukha we are giving up all material enjoyment, how Kṛṣṅa can enjoy materially? He is Para-brahman. Therefore those sahajiyās, those who are taking that Kṛṣṅa is enjoying with ordinary girls, they are very, very much misled. That is not the fact. Therefore it is said, hlādinī śakti. This is different. This is in the spiritual world the topmost mellow, hlādinī śakti.

So eko brahma dvitīya nāsti: "Brahman, Para-brahman, is one." Kṛṣṅa is one. There is no competition with Kṛṣṅa. Na tat-samaś cābhyadhikaś ca dṛśyate [Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 6.8]:

[The Supreme Lord has nothing to do. Nothing is equal to Him or greater than Him. He acts in different phases by manifesting His parts and parcels, which are all simultaneously differently situated by His unlimited, variegated potencies. Each potency acts quite naturally in sequences, providing Him full knowledge, power and pastimes.]

"Nobody can be equal with Him; nobody can be greater than Him." Na tasya samaḥ. Samaḥ means equal, and adhikaḥ means greater. That is Para-brahman. That is Kṛṣṅa. So Kṛṣṅa says also, mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat [Bg 7.7]:

[O conqueror of wealth [Arjuna], there is no Truth superior to Me. Everything rests upon Me, as pearls are strung on a thread.]

"There is no more superior entity than Me." So we have to very carefully study Kṛṣṅa. The Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement means to understand Kṛṣṅa very scientifically. It is not sentiment. One must be very philosophically advanced with scientific knowledge, jñānaṁ vijñānam. This is vijñāna. It is not sentiment. Jñānaṁ vijñāna-sahitam. Jñānaṁ me paramaṁ guhyaṁ yad vijñāna-samanvitam [SB 2.9.31].

[The Personality of Godhead said: Knowledge about Me as described in the scriptures is very confidential, and it has to be realized in conjunction with devotional service. The necessary paraphernalia for that process is being explained by Me. You may take it up carefully.]

Without vijñāna, science, without philosophy, to understand Kṛṣṅa is not possible. You can say that "Do you think that all the devotees, they are all scientist and philosopher?" Yes. The answer is yes. "No, they have no degree of science or philosophy." And still... Because if you learn science and philosophy, you will have to approach some person who knows the science, knows the philosophy. But the greatest scientist, the greatest philosopher, is Kṛṣṅa. He is within your heart. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati [Bg 18.61].

[The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone's heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy.]

And He says, teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam, buddhi-yogaṁ dadāmy aham [Bg 10.10].

[To those who are constantly devoted and worship Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me.]

Anyone who is sincere devotee and always engaged in Kṛṣṅa's service, Kṛṣṅa says, "I give him education, intelligence. I make him scientist, philosopher." That is the way. Buddhi-yogaṁ dadāmi. What kind of science? What kind of philosophy? Yena mām upayānti te: "That science, that spiritual science, that spiritual philosophy, I teach him personally."

Why this is so not to all? You may say that if Īśvara, the Supreme Lord, is sitting in everyone's heart, why He is especially inclined, teṣāṁ satata-yuktānām [Bg 10.10], one who is engaged twenty-fours hours in His service? Why not others? So that is special mercy for the devotee. Special mercy. Teṣām evānukampārtham aham ajñāna-jaṁ tamaḥ, nāśayāmy ātma-bhāva-sthaḥ [Bg 10.11].

[Out of compassion for them, I, dwelling in their hearts, destroy with the shining lamp of knowledge the darkness born of ignorance.]

This is the process. You cannot understand God, or Kṛṣṅa, without being a faithful servant. This is the secret. And if we become faithful servant under the guidance of proper spiritual master, then we can understand what is Kṛṣṅa, what is Para-brahman, and what is loving affairs with Rādhārāṅī, what is Śrī Kṛṣṅa Caitanya Mahāprabhu. These things are revealed. It is not acquired by so-called mundane knowledge. That is not possible. Svayam eva sphuraty.

Just like in the darkness, if you want the sunshine, it is not possible. But in the morning the sun comes out automatically and the darkness is dissipated. Svayam eva.

So we should always remain faithful servant of Kṛṣṅa. And Kṛṣṅa is within everyone's heart, and He will be pleased by your service, and then He will reveal Himself, what He is. Otherwise it is not possible.

Thank you very much.

Devotees: Jaya Prabhupāda. [end]

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā 1.5